in which it was
contained."

The importance of these experiments, the care with which they were
instituted, the deserved reputation of the experimenter, and the
philosophic character of his inferences, will, I trust, apologise for
the extent of this quotation. I do not think, however, that the question
is settled by them; and I will venture to make one or two comments on
the facts and on the observations.

Dr Buckland allows that the circumstances of the incarceration of his
Toads were not natural. This seems to me an element of more importance
than he attributes to it. They were shut up while in active life, after
having been confined for two months on scanty food;--"So that they were
in an _unhealthy and somewhat meagre_ state at the time of their
imprisonment." We do not know what conditions, what natural provisions
precede torpidity and are essential to it; but possibly there are some,
which in these cases were compulsorily precluded by human interference.
It is stated that the animals that survived to the second year were
always found awake when examined,--"_never in a state of torpor_." But
Toads that had hid themselves would have been torpid during the winter
months; and thus we have a sufficient proof that a natural condition of
body had been by some means prevented. The experiment would be much more
fair to the Toad, and much more conclusive to me, if the animal were
inclosed during the depth of its winter-sleep, care being taken to
handle it as little as possible.

As it was, however, _most of the Toads_ inclosed in the limestone
_survived upwards of thirteen months_. This surely is a very remarkable
fact. Take the case of No. 9. Here was a Toad, nearly full grown, which
had been shut up in a stone cell, covered with a plate of glass
carefully luted down all round, so as to exclude air, buried under three
feet of earth, so as to exclude the smallest gleam of light; yet, at the
expiration of thirteen months, the cell being examined in winter, when
normally all Toads ought to be sound asleep, this Toad was wide awake,
not in the least emaciated, but so thriving in its strange dungeon as
actually to have made 128 grains of flesh! to have actually increased in
weight at the rate of 12-1/2 per cent.!

Dr Buckland says, "It is probable there was some aperture in the luting
by which small insects found admission." But this is altogether a
_petitio principii_: it absolutely begs the question at issue. Are not
th